No matter what product or service you sell, providing high-value information to your blog readers is vitally important. For example, if you provide insurance-related services, you may want to provide users with useful information from government departments, such as news and updates on statistical research, insurance advice, etc.

To create and publish this type of information, however, is very time-consuming. You have to filter through, gather, and organize a lot of data, check your sources for accuracy, write and edit content (or hire someone to do this for you), and then continually ensure that this information is up-to-date. As you can imagine, this not only involves a lot of work but most of the information you are dealing with is well beyond your control.

Fortunately, there is an easier way to keep your readers up-to-date with your information.

It’s called RSS …

(RSS is the easiest way to provide your users with great information)

The Ultimate Guide To WordPress RSS

RSS – What You Need To Know

• RSS, which, according to some stands for RDF Site Summary, is more commonly referred to now as Really Simple Syndication. It can also be called a “feed” or “web feed”.
• RSS lets content publishers automatically syndicate their content so that their site readers can read it without having to keep revisiting sites to check for updates.
• Feeds are also used to publish frequently updated information, such as new blog entries, news, video lists, etc., to which other users can then subscribe.
• You can view RSS feeds using software-based tools called feed readers, or aggregators. Feedreaders are used to find new content published on websites and distribute this content to various online properties.
• There are different kinds of feeds, read by different feed aggregators. Some of these include RSS feeds, Atom (also called AtomPub or APP feeds and RDF (RDF = Resource Description Framework) feeds. All of these formats, however, use a standard XML file format to ensure compatibility with different devices, feedreaders, and programs.
• Many sites and software applications also allow you to combine different RSS feeds to aggregate news and updates from different sources.

In this article, we show you where your RSS feed is located, how to use your WordPress RSS feed to get your content syndicated online, and how to display someone else’s content on your site via RSS feeds.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Feeds

Content syndication is a really powerful and legitimate way of sharing content online. Feeds provide online users with a simple and easy way to stay up-to-date with the latest information published on different websites and blogs.

First, let’s look at the uses of content syndication.

Many news reporting agencies use syndication to publish stories from other news agencies around the world.

Syndication allows leading news reporting agencies to deliver readers global stories and the latest news headlines from around the planet without having to hire and set up additional news staff all around the world …

(Most news reporting agencies rely on content syndication to publish news and stories from news sources all around the world.)

Syndication is used to share newsworthy content legitimately. online media publications syndicate their stories using news feeds …

(Syndication is a legitimate method of sharing newsworthy content)

Most sites actually want you to share their information. Syndicating content not only allows information of great value to be shared, but it can also drive visitors back to the original site responsible for publishing the content being syndicated. This can be an effective way to generate web traffic.

Many digital publishers and major content sites contain a feed section (look for links in the navigation menu that say “RSS” or “Newsfeeds” in them, or just search for “name of site/keyword + rss” – e.g. “nytimes rss”, “star tribune rss”, “sydney morning herald rss”, etc.) …

(Leading online newspapers contain a feed section. Source: Sydney Morning Herald )

Clicking on a site’s RSS feeds link will bring up a directory of different RSS feed sections …

(RSS feeds section. Source: nytimes.com RSS feeds)

These RSS feeds allow readers to access information from different sections of the site (e.g. technology news, travel news, lifestyle magazine, etc.)

An RSS directory can also include feed subcategories …

(RSS Feed section. Image: LA Times)

Note: A feed is only a URL. To use RSS feeds, all you need to do is to copy the URLs and paste these into software that can process the feed into something readable. We’ll cover this further below.

Using Feeds – Benefits

Syndicating someone else’s content on your website has some obvious benefits. It not only helps someone else’s website, it also adds value to your site without you having to create the content …

(Using Feeds - Benefits)

While adding feeds from another site is a great way to add content to your site without having to create it, it’s a great idea to try and get other websites to use your content.

When other websites and blogs syndicate your feed, this gives your business the opportunity to get more exposure online and drive more visitors …

(Get visitors to syndicate your RSS feed … it will help to increase your exposure online!)

Your WordPress RSS

WordPress automatically publishes a feed of all your posts, allowing other online users to easily syndicate your content on their websites.

Depending on your WordPress site’s theme, there are a number of ways to get your RSS feed:

1) If your theme allows the Meta widget to display on your sidebar or footer menu, you can scroll down to the Meta section and click on Entries RSS …

(Meta widget – Entries RSS)

2) You can also find links or buttons on certain WordPress themes that let your visitors copy your RSS feed.

In the screenshot below, for example, a visitor can simply copy the feed URL by right-clicking and copying on the Subscribe to RSS link …

(Copy RSS URLs to your clipboard from “subscribe” buttons)

3) On many sites and again, depending on the WP theme you have installed, you can find the RSS feed displayed in a Follow, Link To Us, or Share toolbar section …

(Look for an RSS button in a a Follow, Link To Us, or Social Share toolbar)

4) You can also view your WordPress RSS feed by simply typing your site’s URL into a web browser and adding “/feed” after the URL, e.g.:

• http://www.yourdomain.com/feed
• http://www.yourdomain.com/blog/feed (if your site is located in a subdomain, e.g. “blog”)

Using any of the above methods will bring up a page containing your WordPress RSS …

(RSS feed content displayed using Firefox)

Note that your feed page will display differently depending on which browser you are using …

(RSS feed content seen with Google Chrome)

Specify Number Of Items To Display On Your RSS Feed

Specify how many posts you want to display in your RSS section in the Reading Settings section. Select the number of items to show in the “Syndication feeds show the most recent” field …

(Settings – Reading Settings – Syndication feed items field)

The feed page will display the number of posts as you have specified in the Reading Settings section …

(The feed will display as many recent posts as you have specified in your Reading Settings section)

Display Full Text Or Summary Of Posts In Your RSS Feed

Another setting in the Reading Settings section that affects your RSS feed is whether to display each article in a feed as full text, or as a summary …

(Settings – Reading Settings – ’For each article in a feed show’ options)

Post Excerpts can also affect how the content in your feed displays …

(Post excerpts affect how your feeds appear)

To learn more about Post excerpts, see this step-by-step tutorial:

• Using Post Excerpts

View The Content Of Your RSS Feeds

As mentioned previously, to view a feed’s content, you need to copy the feed’s URL to your clipboard and paste it into an application that can translate feeds into readable content.

Let’s take a look at how this works.

First, find a website or blog and look for a ’subscribe to feed’ icon or link …

(Search for a ‘subscribe’ button. Image source: http://www.yourcoffeeguru.com)

Next, copy the feed URL to your clipboard …

(Copy the URL of your feed to your clipboard)

If you want, you can check what the RSS feed contains by pasting the URL of your feed into an online feed reader …

(Paste the URL of your feed into a feed reader to view the content. Image: Feedreader.com)

Like feedreaders, WordPress also has the ability to process XML/RSS feeds and convert these into content that can be read by your subscribers.

How To Add Feeds To WordPress

In the example below, we are going to add RSS content from another site to your site.

How To Add A Feed To Your WordPress Sidebar

As mentioned earlier, no matter what industry you operate in, you can add to your site the latest updates from an industry-related government department or authoritative site in your industry by simply importing their RSS feed. You can easily display a range of information on your WordPress site such as news, social media comments, or content from thousands of sites using the WordPress RSS widget.

Let’s add content sourced from an RSS feed to your sidebar …

(Add content from an RSS feed to your sidebar)

First, Find a website or blog that publishes content that you want to display on your site and copy the RSS feed URL …

(Copy the URL of your feed)

Next, log into your wordPress Dashboard and go to Appearance > Widget paste the feed into a new RSS widget …

(RSS Widget)

To learn more about adding content to sidebars using widgets, go here:

• Adding And Configuring Widgets On The WordPress Sidebar

Refresh your web browser. The content from the RSS feed can now be seen on the sidebar (or wherever you have added the RSS widget) …

(RSS Feed Added To Sidebar)

Add Your WordPress RSS Feed To Search Consoles

You can add your WordPress RSS feed to Google and Bing’s search consoles. This will help them index your content faster.

(WordPress RSS feed added to Google Search Console)

Adding your site’s RSS feed to search consoles is simple, fast, easy, and requires no technical skills. For a step-by-step tutorial, go here:

• How To Set Up Webmaster Accounts

How To Add RSS Feed Content To Your WordPress Posts

What if you want to add content from RSS feeds to a post instead of the sidebar?

You can do this using plugins. Search on WordPress.org plugin directory for RSS Aggregator, RSS feed to post, etc.

(‘Add Plugins’ screen – RSS plugins for WordPress)

Note: Most RSS plugins typically require configuration – visit the plugin sites for setup instructions, or contact us for assistance configuring plugins.

Here are some plugins you can check out that allow you to curate and add content from RSS feeds to your pages and posts:

WPeMatico

(WPeMatico Plugin For WordPress)

WPeMatico is an auto blogging plugin that allows you to publish posts automatically from specific RSS/Atom feeds.

You can manage all of your imported feeds and arrange them into campaigns and categories.

For more details, go here:

• WPeMatico Plugin

WP RSS Aggregator

(WP RSS Aggregator Plugin For WordPress)

WP RSS Aggregator is a comprehensive RSS feed importer and autoblogging plugin for WordPress with extended functionality with premium extensions (add-ons).

For example, the Feed to Post extension allows you to import RSS feeds directly into posts.

For more details, go here:

• WP RSS Aggregator WP Plugin

RSS Post Importer

(RSS Post Importer – WordPress Plugin)

The RSS Post Importer plugin allows you to import, curate, syndicate, merge and display full text feeds on your WordPress site.

RSS Post Importer fetches an RSS feed and publishes the full content of each item in the feed as a standalone post.

For more details, go here:

• RSS Post Importer Plugin For WordPress

Powr RSS Feed

(Powr RSS Feed – WordPress Plugin)

The POWr RSS Feed plugin lets you automatically combine and display content from multiple RSS feeds.

The POWr RSS plugin also lets you display images, videos, and article content, adjust sizing and spacing of feeds, use custom fonts, colors, borders, and more. It also has mobile-responsive design and supports text in all languages.

The premium version of POWr contains a number of additional features.

For more details, go here:

• Powr RSS Feed Plugin

WP Pipes

(WP Pipes Plugin)

WP Pipes is a powerful data migration plugin that lets you curate content from RSS feeds, Google News, and many other sources.

This plugin provides loads of functionality like CSV importing for posts/WooCommerce, RSS feed creator, auto blogging, auto post to Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter, export your posts as iTunes podcasts, create Google XML sitemaps, and help take your WordPress CMS to new levels.

For more details, go here:

• WP Pipes WP Plugin

FeedWordPress

(FeedWordPress Plugin For WordPress)

FeedWordPress is a versatile Atom/RSS syndication plugin for WordPress-generated content.

As stated in the FeedWordPress site …

FeedWordPress is an open-source Atom/RSS aggregator for the WordPress blog publishing platform. You set up feeds that you choose, and FeedWordPress syndicates posts from those sources into your WordPress posts table, where they can be displayed by your WordPress templates like any other post — but with additional meta-data, so that your templates can properly attribute the post to the source it came from.

You can use this plugin to create aggregator site (sites that combine and display content from many different sources), or display all of your online activity (e.g. from your blog, Twitter, Flickr, or other online services, into a Lifestream.

For more details, go here:

• FeedWordPress WordPress Plugin

Autoblog

(Autoblog Plugin)

Autoblog is an easy-to-use plugin that can be set-up very quickly, with no coding required and no complicated instructions. Simply copy and paste in the URL of your feed, give the feed a name (for admin purposes) and select a blog to post content to.

For more details, go here:

• Autoblog – WordPress Plugin

RSS Includes Pages

(RSS Includes Pages)

Use a plugin like RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types to include pages in your WordPress RSS feed in addition to posts (by default WordPress only includes posts in your RSS feed).

For more details, go here:

• RSS Includes Pages and Custom Post Types WP Plugin

Useful Tips

Tip #1 – WP Comment RSS Feeds

In addition to giving online users access to feeds of your posts, WordPress also makes available RSS feeds of your latest post comments.

You can view these by clicking on Comments RSS in your ‘Meta’ widget area (note: this section may not be visible on some themes) …

(WordPress Comments Feed)

All the comments posted on your site by visitors display in the Comments RSS page …

(RSS comments feed items as seen on Firefox web browser)

Like post entries, your comments feed page will display differently depending on which browser you use …

(Comments feed items viewed using Google Chrome)

Again, you can check the feed content by pasting the URL of the feed into a feed reader …

(Paste your URL of your comments feed into a feed reader to view the feed content. Image Source: http://feedreader.com/online)

Note: If the Meta section is not displaying on your theme, you can view the Comments RSS section of your site by opening up a browser and typing in the following URL:

• http://www.yourdomain.com/comments/feed
• http://www.yourdomain.com/blog/comments/feed (if your WordPress site installation is in a subfolder, e.g. “blog”)

Tip #2 – Single Item RSS Feeds

Being able to use an RSS feed for single post items can be useful. For example, you may want to add feeds from specific posts to RSS aggregator sites, or you may have created a valuable resource that other online users will want to syndicate.

The formula for accessing an RSS feed for specific post items is shown below:

(RSS Feed For Single Post Item)

To create the above feed, copy the URL of your post, and append “/feed/?withoutcomments=1” to the end.

(Single Post Feed)

Note: By default, if you only append “/feed” to the end of a post URL, WordPress will return the comments made on your post, not actual content of the post itself.

Tip #3 – Displaying Category RSS Feeds

Some your site users may only want to subscribe to content from specific categories. They may not want to subscribe to all of your site’s content.

If your site publishes content under multiple categories, you can offer subscribers a separate feed for each category.

Just use the format shown below:

(RSS feed format for category)

Copy the category URL …

(Copy the category URL to your clipboard …)

Append “feed” to the end of it …

(Format for WP post categories feed)

The category RSS feed now only contains content assigned to this particular category …

(Category-specific RSS feed)

The WordPress Codex also provides different ways to create feeds not just for post categories, but also feeds for tags, authors, search, etc.

For this example, let’s create a feed for a specific post category using the format shown below:

(Post Category feed format. Source: WordPress Codex)

Here is the feed format WordPress recommends using. In this example, the post category ID is ’42’. We’ll need to replace the post category ID and the domain name …

(WordPress post category feed format)

To find the post category ID, go to Posts > Categories …

(Posts > Categories menu)

Locate the post category you want and hover your mouse over the title to reveal its unique ID …

(Post Category ID)

In our example, the post category ID is ’29’ and the post category feed format we need to use for this specific category with our domain name looks like this …

(Post category feed format with domain name and ID)

Copy and paste the feed into your browser and hit enter …

(Paste the feed into your browser)

This will display the feed for that specific category …

(RSS feed of a specific post category)

Note that in this example, WordPress automatically converted the feed format we pasted into the browser into the category feed we had used in the previous section of this tutorial …

(Post category feed format)

Here is the feed format again …

(Post category feed)

In this case, the simplest way to create additional feeds for specific categories is to simply change the post category slug …

(Change the post category slug to create a new category specific feed)

Paste the edited feed into your web browser and hit enter to display the content for that specific category’s feed …

(Post category feed content)

Now that you have a method for creating feeds for specific post categories (or tags, authors, etc.), you can even create a directory or list of individual feeds for visitors.

Tip #4 – Provide A Feeds Page

You can create your own RSS feeds list that allows your readers to subscribe to content in the categories that interest them …

(Create Your Own List Of Feeds For Subscribers)

All you need to do is link an image like the one shown below to the URL of your feed and then create a table or a list of your feeds on a new page …

(RSS graphic. Image: http://www.public-domain-photos.com/free-cliparts/computer/other/rss_button_roman_bertle_01-2522.htm)

To learn more about adding tables to WordPress posts, refer to this step-by-step tutorial:

• Adding Tables To WordPress Posts And Pages

RSS – Additional Notes

Feeds can be customized in various different ways, such as adding videos to feeds, ads, etc. Some of these feed customizations require code editing skills.

WordPress allows you to configure several feed types without touching code. Below are examples of some of the kinds of feed formats you can create …

(WordPress RSS – Custom Feeds)

Below are the feed types, descriptions, and feed examples listed in the diagram above:

• Feed Type: All Posts
• Description: Content feed – Feed that displays your latest post entries
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/

• Feed Type: All Comments
• Description: Comments feed – RSS feed that includes the latest comments left on your website or blog
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/comments/feed/

• Feed Type: Individual Posts
• Description: RSS feed for an individual post
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-blog-post/feed/

• Feed Type: Individual Posts Comments
• Description: Displays the latest comments made on an individual post
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/title-of-your-blog-post/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Day – Includes latest post entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2012/08/30/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Month – Displays the latest posts in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2018/02/feed/

• Feed Type: Archives
• Description: Year – Includes latest entries in each archive
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/2014/feed/

• Feed Type: Search Results
• Description: Contains the latest items for a search query
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/search/term/feed/

• Feed Type: Custom Post Type
• Description: RSS feed that includes the latest items for a custom type (e.g. book)
• Example Feed: http://yourdomain.com/feed/?post_type=book

One more thing …

Remember to promote your RSS feed. Place a ’subscribe to RSS’ link or button somewhere visible …

(Promote your RSS feeds!)

Keep in mind that other sites will only subscribe to your content if you publish great information that informs, engages, and entertains. In other words, you need to provide high-quality information that will add great value to their sites and benefit their users.

(Easily add content from other sites and get visitors to syndicate your content online with RSS feeds!)

If you need help coming up with content ideas subscribe to our FREE content creation course using the form below:

Also, don’t forget to subscribe to our feed 🙂

RSS – Additional Resources:

• Feed Images – Visit Feedicons or search online (e.g. “free RSS icons”, “rss logo”, etc.) for sites that allow you to download RSS graphics.
• RSSBoard.org – The RSS Advisory Board provides useful information and links to resources about RSS.
• Wikipedia.org/RSS – General information about the history and benefits of using RSS feeds.
• WordPress.org – WordPress documentation and information repository. Visit this site to learn more about using WordPress feeds.

Congratulations! Now you know how to find your WordPress RSS feed, how to syndicate your content online using feeds, and how to add content from other websites to your site using their RSS feed.

Hopefully, now you have a better understanding of issues that can affect your web site and how WordPress can help you expand your business online. To read more about the benefits of using WordPress for a business web site please click on links to visit other posts on this site.

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